This talk will explore how emotion and affect play a crucial yet underappreciated role in shaping comparative law processes, challenging the long-held perception that comparative law remains a bastion of pure reason. Contrary to this common view, emotion and affect are integral to the development of comparative law, particularly through the lens of the US-China relationship, which can be characterized as "adversarial comparativism." Rather than using law to emulate or learn from one another, the US and China engage in legal strategies aimed at outmaneuvering each other. This dynamic is evident in China’s adaptation of US-style extraterritoriality and the development of China-related property regimes by US state governments. These examples of adversarial comparativism illustrate how emotion drives legal frameworks in the context of a US-China rivalry, offering insight into the increasingly fragmented landscape of international law.

This event is organized by the Hong Yen Chang Center for Chinese Legal Studies and co-sponsored by the Parker School of Foreign & Comparative Law and the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law.

Lunch will be provided.

About the Speaker

Matthew S. Erie (J.D., Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor, Member of the Law Faculty, and Associate Research Fellow of the Socio-Legal Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Professor Erie's research lies at two types of intersections: the first is between Anglo-American common law and Asian law and the second is between law and the social sciences. Trained as a lawyer and anthropologist, his work addresses such issues as law and capitalism, global (dis)orders, comparative international law, socio-legal methods and theories, and China. He is the Principal Investigator of the “China, Law and Development” project.